Singing a Swans song

The Swans are back on song with a 63-point thrashing of Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, but it may be at a price with Jarrad McVeigh on report for rough conduct.

The alleged incident happened nine minutes into the game involving Matthew Jaensch.

The Crows are hurting badly, not only losing their third game in capitulating fashion, but with Scott Thompson (corked thigh), Sam Kerridge (eye) and Mitch Grigg (abductor strain).

In a damning statistic, Adelaide's opposition has kicked 30 of the last 34 goals in the three matches against it – Geelong the last six, Port Adelaide 12 of the last 15, and now Sydney 12 of the last 13.

Crows' coach Brenton Sanderson said the club was not pushing the panic button, but admitted: "We're leaning on it."

"Links in the chain are breaking down . . . we are not working together as a team defensively," he said.

"We will keep on looking at the make-up of our team . . . and keep trying to find out answers," he said. "We can't keep capitulating like we have; that's three weeks in a row.

"It's something that's got to be addressed pretty quickly. An eight-day break going into the game against St Kilda . . . we've got to make sure we find out what the problems are and fix them up.

"It is unacceptable for our fans who want to see footy played the right way. We are not playing well for four quarters.

"We've got to work on a lot of different strategies . . . to make sure we don't start the season 0-4.

"Today we were just not good enough for long enough. That fourth quarter, once again the players were trying as hard as they could but they could not sustain the onslaught."

Sydney coach John Longmire was delighted. "We really played the game right out. To kick 12 of the last 13 goals – seven goals in the last quarter – and importantly to keep them down as well, it was a really strong performance.

"Our leaders were terrific, they really stood up."

Longmire was also pleased with Lance Franklin. "He had a really good game for us," he said.